DATE: Sunday, November 9, 1997              TAG: 9711070293

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 16   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: ARTISTIC LICENSE 
SOURCE: Mary Ellen Riddle 

                                            LENGTH:   78 lines

RAY MATTHEWS ROLLS OUT COLORFUL PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW

THE WORK OF color photographer Ray Matthews illuminates The Frame Shop Gallery in downtown Manteo this month.

Matthews calls it his Christmas showing. And like a good Santa, he's provided something for everyone.

The exhibition includes 57 framed images and at least that many matted works, plus a sampling of note cards, a calendar and poster.

Matthews is known for his Outer Banks landscapes. His colors run the gamut from clear, shocking blue skies to hazy, milky brown seas. At least half of the scenes, which include billowy clouds, rolling waves, salvaged Scotch bonnets, a luminescent chapel and sensual silhouettes, were shot in the last six months.

The artist does all the printing from color slides. His wife Pam helps with the matting and framing.

He planned ahead to get some of the pictures, including those of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. With the chance that it will be moved, the sentinel could eventually be cluttered with engineering flags and scaffolding, he predicts.

``I especially did get some aerial shots with that in mind this summer,'' he said.

Some of Matthews' shots are impromptu, while others take more planning. He had a challenge shooting the Portsmouth Island chapel by night considering there's no electricity on the island. He waited until dusk, set his tripod-mounted camera up outdoors, then entered the darkened church with his flash covered in a yellow bread wrapper. He flashed each window then returned to the camera to trip the shutter.

The result is a delicate nightscape featuring a beautifully illuminated structure with glowing windows. It was his favorite picture of the trip.

But if you ask him to choose his favorite overall, he laughs and says, ``I just print my favorites; I've got thousands that I don't print.''

While most of Matthews' works feature common coastal surroundings, he stretches within those self-imposed boundaries to dabble in the abstract of sorts.

A master color man, Matthews turned an ordinary beach umbrella scene into a non-objective painterly photo that would have tickled the German color theoretician Joseph Albers.

By working with colors of similar value, the Nags Head photographer masterfully controls depth while corralling contrasting colors - hues that appear opposite one another on the color wheel. The deep blue sky and a slight corner of a brilliant orange umbrella appear to be on the same plane and create a pattern that's fascinating.

Fun, visual relationships can be found in Matthews' pictures, though the artist says they are sometimes happenstance. Notice how the curl of a toe in a silhouette of his wife mimics the upturned shape of a shell at the tip of her foot. And chuckle at his luscious dune shot that resembles a mound of soft-serve ice cream. A kinship is formed with an old wooden bridge careening into the distance, echoing the texture and curve of a nearby tree.

Visitors to the exhibition will find themselves traveling from Corolla to Portsmouth Island as they soak in Matthews' panorama.

Spontaneous shots such as surfers nestled under a curl, Jockey's Ridge alive with crawling, silhouetted human forms, a sky full of swarming sea gulls contrast beautifully against steadfast historic pictures of the Corolla Light, Whalehead Club, Manteo's White Doe Inn at Christmas time and a rose-colored Ocracoke Lighthouse shot at sunrise.

Matthews must be wearing holes in his sneakers as he rises at dawn many days to capture just the right light and waits for weeks on end for the starfish to grace the sandy shores once again.

His vigilance provides the public with a fine collection of barrier island beauty.

The end-of-the-year sampling comes in varying sizes from the note cards to 16-by-24-inch prints.

It's a choice selection of Outer Banks beauty that will not only warm the cockles of your holiday heart, but bring a ``Ray of Matthews'' into your home all year. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY ELLEN RIDDLE

Ray Matthews is exhibiting more than 57 framed color photographs,

along with other items suitable for gifts.

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